Changes in Body Condition

I like looking at the wonderful changes in Lutine's body condition. Will also get some new photos this weekend that show her as she is today. If you click on any of the photos, you will get a larger image where you can see her condition more clearly

At the start - you could see all her spine, every rib, her scapula is clearly defined and you can see her sternum (breastbone) protruding. When I put my arm over her back, I could feel the internal heat escaping through her fine skin. She had no body fat to keep herself insulated at all. I rugged her with my other horse's 5ft 9" rug to keep her warm. Lutine should have taken around a 6ft 3" rug but she was so thin, the right size rug would have buried her:

After one month, she was starting to put on some weight but her hind end was very skinny indeed and was totally lacking musculature:

By March 2006, she was looking less skeletal:

This is Lutine in May 2006 with her new summer coat through. She's looking a lot better, but still has a skinny rump:

This is her in September 2006, her weight was fine but she was missing condition and muscle tone. I'd started her on the Top Spec balancer plus carried on with the 500ml of oil per day as per the EPSM diet recommendations a couple of weeks prior to this, so we still needed a bit of time before the diet changes started to show through:

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And now, here she is today, munching at the grass in our garden. I'm now having to keep a careful eye on her putting on too much weight! Currently, she has ad lib hay, Top Spec Comprehensive Balancer, a small amount of alfalfa chop and Top Spec 10:10 joint supplement. She's also doing a minimum of half an hour long reining almost every day of the week and she is permanently turned out (no stabling):